Haifuri: The adventures of Taskforce Dragon
by The Eminent' Prinz Eugen
Summary: [Slightly AU] Student Council President Captain Ivory Goodman, more commonly known as the black dragon is a third year student attending the A.G.Y.N.H commanding the feared Destroyer: USS Gearing. Along with her best friends, Lilith Locke [VP], Acadia Des Moines [PR manager] and their crews. They form Taskforce Dragon. What happens when they get involved in the rat crisis at sea?
1. Chapter 1

It just had to be rats didn't it? Goddamn fucking rats fed with some kind of mind controlling serum and the ability to disrupt electronics rendering all electronic warfare somewhat… Totally useless. With the advanced warships having been pushed back due to technical difficulties the question still remained. Who was going to secure to Musashi and how?

Let us find out…

"Tell me Aceline, what did the principal ask us to do?" Captain Ivory Goodman asked as her radio operator looked back onto the message on her clipboard.

"She has requested us to set a course for the Musashi's now confirmed location and provide assistance in efforts to secure the Musashi. We are allowed to use fire power if deemed necessary but under the condition that collateral damages do not happen to the vessel or its crew. That is all." Aceline replied looking up.

Ivory bit her tongue, all this time she'd been trying to avoid this. Getting tangled into some crisis that has nothing to do with her, her crew, and her ship. Just a while ago, she'd had enough with some weird family of rodents getting fished onto her boat before causing about 15 percent of her total crew to go mutiny. Aggressive behaviour in other words. Luckily it was put under control when she accidentally found the way to stop the infected from going all berserk and perhaps eventually harming themselves or other crew.

A BB gun, yes, an airsoft gun as everyone would know it as. In shear desperation, when a group of infected crewmembers tried to take over the bridge, she took out the M4 from underneath the steering wheel and shot them all. It worked. They dropped like bowling pins when those BBs hit them.

So they lay there, completely motionless with their eyes still open. Orders were given to splash them with water to see if they were OK. The buckets were filled with sea water and each person was individually doused with the liquid causing them to snap back to normal and… the same kind of rat crawling out of their pockets.

All five of her crewmembers were then confined to their cabins which were now all padlocked. The rats were captured thanks to the ship's fatty cat, Garfield and placed into containment bins before tied to a weight and tossed overboard. Call it animal cruelty but that was how things were done on this ship. Ivory hated rats, and she would do anything to get rid of them.

"So was it the Japanese Principal who gave us the orders or did _our_ principal give the orders?" Ivory asked Aceline once more.

"She requested Admiral Spruance to send the help. Admiral Spruance was the person who gave us the orders and also the rest." Aceline replied.

The bridge was then silence for a brief moment of time as Ivory consolidated herself of what the hell had just happened in the passing week. Everything started just fine with them leaving port, formed up the wedge formation with her two other friends to commanding destroyers and set about a course for Iwo Jima training grounds. Mid way, an oil leak was discovered in all three ships…odd and they were forced to stop and make emergency repairs. But that fuel just kept gushing out of the tanks! After 16 hours of mad patching up, countless crew sent into the waves with snorkels and armed with screws, drills and sheets of metal. They fixed the leak.

Bingo on fuel because they didn't leaving port with a full tank because they were on a short training exercise, a supply ship was summoned up and it sufficiently topped the tanks off. Resuming their cruise, word of the Harekaze engaging the Sarushima, a ton of ships gone missing from the Yokosuka Japanese Girl's high school: Blue Mermaids. Their instructors radioed in the order for them to turn around and head home. So they did, now just eight hours from receiving the latest order, Ivory gets to order to turn her ship towards the massive engagement some nautical miles north and 'help out'.

Why couldn't have they just sent some other taskforce? It just had to her puny little destroyer taskforce didn't it? It just had to be the entire student council staff whom gets sent into the fray. Was everyone else incompetent enough to be given the same mission? Debatably yes because in this entire western bloc of United States Navy Blue Mermaids personnel, this was the best anyone could really muster up in all this time in order to respond to the crisis.

"Captain?" The helmsman, Olivia Murdoch asked looking a bit worried seeing Ivory had been in the same pose for an entire five minutes, giving little to no regard whatever was happening around her.

"Signal from the Robert A. Owens and Herbert J. Thomas!" The mast shouted through the ship phone. "Confirm...Orders….From…High…School…Set…Course…For…Assigned…Location…Yes… No?"

All eyes once again fused onto Ivory as she decided her answer.

"Orders confirmed. Set a course rudder right twenty degrees. Make course zero-five-zero from current course. Speed: Full ahead." She ordered and everyone on the bridge quickly got away with their jobs. The crow's nest didn't want to get stoned again so they to hurriedly flashed the orders to the Robert A. Owens and Herbert J. Thomas.

"Rudder twenty degrees…" Murdoch said grabbing the wheel and spinning up twenty degrees. "Turning now, passing zero-one five-zero." She said eyeing the compass.

The secretary voluntarily moved over to the speed control before dialing into full. "Speed set to full." She spoke.

"Speed increasing!" Murdoch shouted seconds later. "Passing thirty knots!"

Ivory remained expressionless. "Torpedo officer. Tell your girls to load up ten of our best fish from the holds and set depth at 14 meters for tubes in launcher one. Depth at 17 meters for launcher two. Torpedo speed 66 knots, range 10 kilometers." She ordered Hilary 'Torps' Pen.

"So were going to break their backs? Heh… fine by me…" Hilary grinned crossing her arms and leaning back on the wall.

"Artillery, stand by for further orders. For now settle with practice ammunition but advised me when it would be feasible to fire at secondary armaments of the Musashi when we close in on range." Ivory also added.

The artillery officer nodded.

"Double A. I want everything that we have fully loaded and ready to unleash hail... and I want hail you get me?" Ivory then said.

"You got it Cap'n!" The Texan replied.

The exact same orders were then relayed to the rest of the ships with an understatement: 'Ordered by council Prez'.

With the sun setting in the background and the sky radiating with orange, the small taskforce of Destroyers corrected their headings towards the scene of the ongoing crisis. The torpedo tubes glimmering in with the final rays of sunlight as torpedoes were loaded into them, girls shouting on the decks of all three ships. The anti-aircraft staff wearing their blue helmets and life vests busy with boxes of forty millimeter Bofors ammunition, twenty millimeter Orelikons and the favorite of them all. Point fifty caliber ammunition, doing their job and loaded all those guns.

Three long black lines of exhaust filled the air as the three Gearing class destroyers made way at flank speed towards their objective. The target: The Yokosuka Girl's highschool: Musashi.

 _ **One and a half days later…**_

[Queue music, U-571: End credits #1]

"Three mast spotted in the horizon! Range 9 kilometers out due west!" The crow's nest reported to the bridge on the Harekaze. Mashiro and Misaki and the rest of the bridge crew trained their eyes onto the course said and spotted the three masts belonging to the three Destroyers sailing a black stream of smoke behind them towards their position.

"They're here…." Mashiro thought as the ships came into full view.

Indeed they were.

"Contact! 9 kilometers out! Dead in the water Harekaze!" The crows reported to the bridge as the hulk of the Harekaze came into view. There she was, sitting in the water waiting for the three new arrivals to meet her.

"Bring us about and bleed the speed…" Ivory ordered as the secretary once again voluntarily hurried over to the speed dials and rolled in for half speed.

Orders had been given beforehand about half an hour earlier for everyone to man their battle stations. Reasons for being was that Ivory didn't want any surprises when she reached the meeting point. There was no telling if the Musashi would change her course suddenly and come sailing straight towards them. Another more personal reason was that Ivory was one of those people whom liked to show off and she liked doing that, a lot.

As more and more details of the three destroyer taskforce came into view, the crew of the Harekaze felt both slightly intimidated, envious, and a bit impressed as they saw the presented situation aboard all three Gearing destroyers.

The intimidation came from the triple hundred twenty seven millimeter guns shining in the sun as well as the numerous anti air craft armaments manned by the destroyer's marines complement or some other parts of the staff whom had simply took on a blue helmet and life vest and had their hands on one of those guns. They didn't show even a sign of stress of fear in hooking themselves up to such weapons

Envy drew from the shear amount of equipment they saw aboard the destroyer. Numerous radar equipment, that boxy thingy looking fire control module, and for a particular torpedo officer. Actual torpedoes and also the ten glimmering torpedo tubes armed, in the sun and ready to fire at a moment's notice.

After a short while of sailing towards them, the three Gearings individually split their formation before they encircled the Harekaze. One last thing they showed off was the flag that flew from their stern. A simple navy blue background and a golden roundel showcasing an armored dragon breathing fire flanked by a pair of anchors. In bold gold description atop the roundel read: "A.G.Y.N.H.S.C." which stood for a mouthful: _'American Girl's Yokosuka Naval Highschool Student Council'_

Mashiro blinked for a few moments when she saw the flag hanging from the stern. _"No… it can't be"_ She murmured as she saw the flags on each destroyer for the first time. Being perhaps the most knowledgeable person onboard the Harekaze in terms of knowing things about the Blue Mermaids and also its schools worldwide. It would be completely out of character for Munetani to not know the next door neighbor to her own school.

The A.G.Y.N.H. and more respectively, its student council. Its president, Captain Ivory Goodman was a name that would be at least an honorable mention at least twice every year in the Blue Mermaids official magazine. Whether be it shining sun and calm seas to thunderous weather and hellish seas. She's an absolute devil to be an adversary. Your troubles would rise as you put into regards the Vice President and PR manager respectively commanding the Robert A. Owens and Herbert J. Thomas.

Munetani's prediction was later confirmed as all three captains emerged from the bridge of the vessels all at the same time, in perfect timing before they began to eye the Harekaze. A black Motorola walky-talky in their hands and all looking dead serious. Once again showing off.

"This ship is laughable…" Vice president Lilith Locke commented over the channel

"No kidding Lock Lock." Public relations manager Acadia Des Moines replied. "We've got advantages in guns by far superior overall DPM. Looks like they're dry on torps to! Damn what a shame, I say they're K. already if they're facing us"

Being the less negative person in the trio, Ivory said little but reminded the two that they were working with this vessel and they should treat it with respect and at least give some sorts of dignity to it even though it was highly see-able that the Harekaze was indeed inferior to their Gearings. "Try not to snatch all the glory ok guys?" She added to her small lecture.

After an exchange of flag signals and signal lamps flashing. A RHIB boat was unloaded off of the USS Gearing and it gathered the three other captains including Misaki before returning back to the Gearing where Ivory greeted them all.

"Wow! You guys sure have a very cool ship!" Misaki applauded as she was guided towards the Officer's mess where the briefing would take place.

" _Such a lack of wording this kid possesses..."_ Lilith thought

" _How the heck did she become a captain?..."_ Acadia also thought.

"Thank you.. I'm pretty sure your vessel is also competent enough. Anyhow without further a due" Ivory said putting on a pretty convincing fake smile. It was fake indeed, what happened in the last 36 hours had hit her pretty bad.

Personally, she was supposed to spend the weekend with her little sister, driving her along the coast so that the young artist can make some of her beautiful sketches. She was quite hesitant when she had to pick up that satellite phone and inform her little sister the news. The crew also didn't receive it quite well as Misaki would've found them shooting glares at her as she passed them.

It started with her crew complaining after she informed them that their long weekend liberty pass to Tokyo had been cancelled thanks to this crisis. Someone was booked for a flight back to Los Angeles because her grandmother had fallen pretty ill. Guess she wasn't going to be on that plane but instead see it fly overhead. This 'son of a gun' crisis had affected the crew in all sorts of ways, some were normally upset but there were also the ones who were keeping their inner rages within themselves. But if tapped into, they may or may not have the will to simply solve the situation by sinking the target over 'capturing it'.

"Shall we get on with what we're going to be doing?" Ivory said to Misaki who nodded enthusiastically.

" _What the hell just happened?"_ Ivory thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: Pinching the president

"Begin the slide show…. Let's get this over with…" A voice called out in the darkened officer's mess hall.

The flickering of a projector could be heard follow by its droning fan as it shunned off onto the white screen of what was currently present on the computer. A PowerPoint slide filled with the information needed to be known by everyone in the upcoming operation.

"Alright... let's just cut down to basics gals." Ivory began walking up to the screen holding a thin metal rod in her hands, her pointing stick. Supposedly it belonged to a radio, yes she tore the antennae off after it broke.

"This is what we're after…" She said as a few slides were brought up showcasing pictures of the Musashi from bow the stern, keel to mast.

"The Musashi as everyone should know. Seventy two point eight thousand tons of smelted metal, guns and machinery. Against us… the four destroyers…" An ironical picture of the four destroyers were brought up.

There was a few laughs that followed in the background and a few side conversations but all of which was stopped when Ivory tapped her stick on the projector.

"I'll take questions later. For now we should get caught up as to what really has happened in the past seventy two hours." She announced bringing up the next slide which contained the same mapping information on the location of ships as seen by principal Munetami.

"Almost every other ship under the blue mermaid's title belonging to the Yokosuka Girl's high school fleet has gone missing. The Musashi is now no longer the sole ship experiencing these… technical problems." Ivory said as she waved for the next slide.

"Ships missing, Hiei, Choukai, Maya, Isuzu, Natori, Amatsukaze, Isokaze, Tokitsukaze, and the German pocket battle ship: The Graf Spee." That seemed to have caught some attention as a few girls straightened themselves out with interest after Ivory spoke the names.

"Can this be a coincidence? Can it? No. This is no coincidence. Ten fully crewed ships going missing all happening over a course of seventy two hours. Equipment failure isn't a reasonable excuse we can rely on now. Something is happening, and we don't know what. However there is a few theories." Ivory said as a cart containing one of those 'mice' was rolled in, trapped in its container.

"This little rodent, according to the surgeon aboard the Harekaze could be the most logical answer as to what is currently happening. Cute isn't it?" Ivory said walking over and picking up the container. "But this isn't our ordinary rodent. It's a genetically modified organism filled with some type of serum that permits mind control…." She was interrupted…

"Female possession!" Someone yelled from the darkened audience.

"Ahem…" Ivory's face darkened. "This is not the ordinary rodent… and we have reason to believe that this may be the case to what is happening. This is only a theory… Until the government can get its hands on a sample and conduct lab testing. There is no guarantee."

A hand rose up from the audience. "Ivory, quit the background information. I'm pretty sure everyone here knows whats happening, and what our target is. The question now is… how... how and what are we doing here?" Acadia boldly said.

Ivory looked around at the audience, mostly everyone was bored, even the captain of the Harekaze seemed to be about to doze off to sleep.

"Fine…" She replied walking over to the computer and skipping about a dozen or so more slides. Until she came to a slide that showcased the logo of their school.

"The government of Japan theorizes that the Musashi would be sailing to the mainland. With its fully laden armament such and such it intends on conducting offshore bombardment of the possibly cities: Yokosuka, Tokyo, Nagasaki, and Kobe. Its current course justifies that and so well… they are considering the option of bringing it down with brute force…"

The room was silent, but you can tell someone was upset in the audience, Misaski.

A hand rose up.

"Yes..." Ivory said.

"Prez, so if they're going to bring it down with brute force why haven't they done so? I mean, it's a freaking nineteen forties battleship that has maneuverability like a slug and barely even enough speed to compete with a destroyer. Besides, why call us in? If they take it that seriously, why hasn't the government of japan requested help from the white house to utilize the SEALs. Get aboard and disable the ship. Why us?" Acadia once again asked.

"I hope you do know who is aboard those ships Acadia…" Ivory reminded her. "They haven't fully readied up their torpedoes yet but when they do... ship goes boom. All hands lost." Ivory took a breath. "Send in the SEALs, even if they're expertly trained it'll be hard for them to differ between friend or foe. They also would most likely be using live ammunition. If by luck somehow the infected crew aboard the Musashi forces them into a corner. It's most likely they'll have a backup plan involving C4. Once again, ship goes boom. All hands lost. The reason why we were brought in, is because there is still that small window of time for us to take back the Musashi without having to send it a burning wreck down to the bottom. Remember, its humans, its one of us aboard that ship. Its kids younger than us goddamit! You really think its not going to give the blue mermaids a bad reputation after news breaks out that a training ship carrying about 90 blue mermaid cadets was sunk to the bottom of the ocean just because it had mutinied for no reason during a time when a whole lot of shit was flying around. When there's a lot of miscommunication all over the place. I don't need your answer but it's a yes."

Acadia was silenced. She had no further opinions.

"This mission was a personal request given by principal Munetami. We take the Musashi back, before the government acts. Let's get onto what we're going to do. Lilith, you're up…" Ivory said handing the stick to Lilith who stood up and walked over to the screen.

"The request is a deadly one, at any moment a shell can tear into our hearts and blow us up. But it's the job of our department to tackle such tricky situations. Everyone who signed up for the special activities department should've been aware of this the day they signed the papers."

The slide was changed to a basic battle plan.

"To cut things down, this'll be a boarding mission. We send out a RHIB from the three Gearings filled with a team, each led by me, the PR manager or the Prez. We get aboard the Musashi and split up. Team a) led by Acadia would go through the rooms aboard the ship and check for any hostages. Team b) led by me will be tasked with the bridge. We bust in there get the captain and the keys and switch off the live fire ammunition. Team c) led by Ivory would take over the engine room. Put out the diesels and boilers and stop the ship dead in the water. If all goes well, we should be back at the RHIBs in an hour tops. However there can always be things that can go wrong so pack an MRE just in case. Moving on…"

The slide was changed to the loadout screen.

"Basic field loadouts. One team, three assaults, one medic and a sniper plus squad leader. Equipment three sticks of C4 only to be used to destroy barriers or in team c's case to knock out the diesels and boilers. Primary armament, AR-15s, an MP5 and a M20A3 sniper rifle. Side arms we'll be using are old M9s. Equipment, blue M67 Frags… yes blue practice ones. Flashbangs and a claymore mine. Don't use it unless you really need to. Ammunition, we'll be firing mostly BBs at our adversaries as we theorize that these things will be put down by BBs as suggested by Ivory during our previous experiences with a similar case. If the BBs are not enough you are authorized to switch to the red mags under the condition it'll only be fired in semi auto and on a shoot to hurt, not shoot to kill basis. However we do have full execution authority, do not neglect it." She said sternly eyeing the room.

A few of the girls a part of the Marine complement started grinning, an indication that trigger happy fever was still a thing aboard this ship.

"Hey look, I don't want to leave this situation finished with a pile of bodies being collected in body bags ok you all? Remember, if you pull those lives rounds on them, you're hurting and most likely going to kill a live human being! If I find any of you running around going all machine gun Kelly. I'm going to shoot you myself. Clear?" Ivory said sternly.

A series of groans started echoing through the audience. "When we've secured the ship, all teams are to proceed to the bridge where we will be popping green flares and smokes. Both to signal for pickup and also to inform the authorities that the situation is now under control and that they won't have to sink the ship. Speaking of sinking the ship…. Madam President…" Acadia said. Ivory walked up to the front of the stage once again. "If we fail to secure the vessel within two days, the situation will be beyond our hands. The Musashi will be labelled as a hardened target and." She looked up at her fellow colleagues in the room.

"They will sink that ship with or without us. Once those torpedoes are dropped into the water, it's over. Us, and all those whom are aboard the Musashi. So I now offer you all the chance now to step down from this mission as it may be our most dangerous one yet. This is no cartel drug busting operation where we'll have all our Satellite and UAV support. We're walking into something that's ready for us to come waltzing in. I cannot make the promise I always make about bringing everyone back to the dinner table alive and in one piece at mission's end. If you feel unconfident about your chances of survival, please leave this room this instant. You have 25 seconds and counting" She declared putting her arms behind her back and looked sternly left to right towards the audience. The smile on her face had been replaced by a dead serious look, she was not joking on this one and everyone knew that.

There was a few shifts occurring in the chairs occupied by the audience of blue helmets and sailors.

"Fifteen seconds to leave." Ivory reminded them, fifteen seconds left to choose which path they'll be taking. To an uncertain fate, or remaining here aboard the destroyers safe and sound.

"Five seconds." Ivory declared. "four…three…two…. One and a half…. One…. Half?" No one moved, a confident look now shined on their faces.

Taking a deep breath, Ivory decided their fate. "OK, you all know what to do. Saddle up and do whatever you need to do. Write notes, letters, make recordings… anything. Do them now. Get some chow, feed your bellies and leave behind anything that is valuable to you. Armories will be unlocked in four hours, we'll get our weapons and gear. Meet at the boats and after that." She turned around to the final slide of the slideshow showcasing an up to date photo of the Musashi.

"We're taking that ship regardless." She slammed her fist on the white screen. "Godspeed."

 _ **Five hours later**_

watch?v=1tCvU_aojWc&list=PLsbQK4nI_FIEG0H8n6a1I43D9clbrtk41&index=4

The sun gave off its final rays of light as it slipped beneath the horizon. Four destroyers took advantage of this evening setting and slipped in as close as they dared nearer, and nearer the Musashi. Stalking it like a pack of night hunters. All the lights were out and in places where there were needed to be, blackout curtains.

watch?v=Cm1cLOMH_jw&list=PLsbQK4nI_FIEG0H8n6a1I43D9clbrtk41&index=8

Only a small group of dark figures moved around on the open deck on three of the four destroyers. All of them carrying a sort of black thing in their arms or that thing was slung on their backs. Towards the rear of the three vessel was a single Rigid hulled inflatable boat which all of the figures were assembling onto.

"Ok Ok ok... give me the box of grenades…" A corporal said outstretching her hand as a box of 'live' grenades was handed to her by one of her accomplices on the deck.

Another metal box with a label chalked in white: 'Claymores' was also handed into the RHIB.

Meanwhile inside the interiors of the Gearing.

"W..wh.. what is that?!" Misaski said pointing towards the Kevlar vest that Ivory had ripped out of a locker.

"Its something that's going to protect you from bullets and maybe punches. Come one... stop resisting.. Just let me get this onto you!" Ivory said walking over to the struggling girl. No she didn't want it on her, it was big and bulky and heavy.

She had been more than enough of a trouble for Ivory already today. Right after the meeting, Misaki had informed her that she too wanted to come along. She was persistent about it to an annoying level that Ivory simply said a yes just for the sake of her to shut up! In truth, she honestly didn't want this girl coming along, she just said a yes because Misaski had stated: "I want to save my friend."

How valiant of her, trying to save her friend. This played its trick just right and the words flew out of Ivory's tongue before she realized it.

Taking responsibility, she ran Misaski through a two hour crash course on how to use the M9 and AR-15. Grenades were barely touched on and she hoped the girl knew that it was pull the pin, throw, and hit the deck.

That was enough trouble.

But now the girl wasn't cooperating in putting on her required body armor. "Just stop struggling!" Ivory shouted as Misaski resisted with all her might.

"Look! If you want to save your friend… j.. j.. just put this one goddamit!" Ivory swore finally managing to slip it onto Misaski. She spare no moment, in a matter of seconds she'd strangled the kid and strapped on the shin guards and also helmet.

"Whewf… there we go…!" Ivory said exhausted before slumping down onto a nearby bench.

"Now… lets go get you your weapons…." She said getting up and grabbing Misaski by her palm and dragging her to the armory. Reaching the armory, they met the chief armorer.

"Tell me you've managed to downsize a rifle or found a spare of something that she can use…" Ivory said, she was not going to risk getting shot in the head again after the little mishap that occurred a few hours ago in the firing range when Misaki had let loose an AR-15 flying into the air and firing. Too much recoil for her to handle.

"Yip… and…" The chief said bending down and reaching into the cupboard. "Make sure you tell her to bring the stuff back in one piece… I get the shit storm poured on me when something goes missing" She said placing a mini uzi onto the table along with clips of loaded ammunition.

"I'll knock that sense into her mind… not to worry!" Ivory said grabbing the contents off the table and heading over the Misaski. She slid the weapons into its holsters and got a pair of grenades out of her pocket and to slip them onto Misaski.

The young Japanese girl seemed rather uncomfortable so Ivory bent down to her level and spoke to Misaki. "Listen, I know you may be fighting your friend here and there. I know it's hard, but this is what is happening. There is no denying it." She was interrupted by faint noises of sobs.

"Look at me!" Ivory said using both her palms and turning Misaski's baby face to her. "Your friend is now perhaps our enemy! If she is, she is no longer what she use to be! She is an adversary, she will hurt you! She will kill you! She will not remember you! Don't you remember what I showed you in the last hour!? This virus infects the electrode system of people! They won't be able to control themselves nor see what is happening in front of them! They are possessed! They're infected! They're nothing more than an enslaved human being! Realize the reality and react accordingly to it!"

This was when Misaski really started crying. No she didn't want to fight her childhood friend, no she didn't want to fight against Moeka chan. She didn't want to hurt her childhood friend! No, this was just too much for her.

A lot had happened in the past hours, Misaski wanting to come along, informing Ivory that the captain of the Musashi was her friend. Being an absolute immature jackass. This was it, Ivory had reached her limiting point. An angry expression on her face, she yanked the girl into a nearby closet and slammed the door shut. Raising her hand, she outright slapped the 'kid'. "Look! I'm putting my life on the line here for your friend and her crewmates! No, not only my life! I'm putting the lives of all the personnel aboard these three destroyers just so that you can have a shot at seeing your friend again! I can't believe that I'm nice enough to allow you to come along in my efforts just so that you can see your friend! You know how many regulations that I might be potentially violating?! HUH?! HUH!? I should be disembarking my ship right now, fetching my car and driving home to see my little sister. But no! I simply had the audacity to be here instead! I didn't even have a chance to call her to perhaps say a final good bye because you got in my way! What affects you, has also affected others of my crew! Petty officer Walker, her grandmother is as sick as a bug and perhaps lying her on deathbed this moment! Supposedly she was booked for a flight out of Japan tonight, yet she's still going to be here and be that marine who's going to commit her part to this operation to save your friend! Yes all this for your friend! Yet I haven't seen the slightest of gratefulness coming from you! Are you worthy of such kindness?! ANSWER ME! GODDAMIT! ANSWER ME!"

There were tears, there was wailing. Just a stunned Misaski standing there and an infuriated student council president. It wasn't normal for Ivory to freak out on a kid like this, but this had just been too much for her.

"I can outright not go along with this operation right now and sink the bloody hell out of your friend this instant! I've got full execution authority I hope you are aware… And my tubes are already loaded with the best mark fourteen fishes and all I have to do is correct the depth and I can sink that bloody Yamato down to the iron bottom. But I can't do that can I? There's what this world calls: 'people' aboard that ship and it'll make me a sadistic murderer if I give that order when there's another option possible right? Do you know how much needless bullcrap that I have no obligation to receive is being inflicted on me this moment!?"

Once again, Misaki was frozen stiff like a statue.

Taking a few deep breaths, Ivory recollected herself. "If you're coming, meet me at the launch before we leave. Else you can stay here and watch me do it for _you_ " She said opening the closet door and storming off.

On the way to the launch, she bumped into Jennifer Walker, petty officer third class. She had her smartphone in her hands and it looked like she'd been through a lot in the past hour. Yet she was all saddled up and ready to go.

"Everything ok Walker?" Ivory inquired from her squad sniper.

"*Sob like dialogue* Huh…y…y.. yah…" she replied attempting to walk past Ivory.

Ivory grabbed her by her arm. "Tell me…"

"They just moved her to the ICU." Walker replied before breaking free before pacing away.

A few minutes later, Ivory found herself running through the final checklist before departure. Helmet cams, check. Flashlight, check. Flares, check. One live grenade… double checked. One claymore per person. Done. Rollcall, everyone in her launch was where they should be, everyone but Misaski.

"Isn't our little uninvited guest coming along?" The skipper asked warming up the engine.

"I don't suppose so… maybe she has a faulty watch or forgot the check the time." Ivory replied, half lying. She started regretting for her actions previously when she gave the girl a brutal beat down.

"Whatever… alright! Lower us in!" The skipper yelled towards the crane operator who gave a thumbs up and began lower the launch into the waves.

The rubber hull met the waves and its occupants began to move towards the lines to detach them.

"WAIT!" A high pitched voice shouted from the ship.

"Oh what now?!" Ivory swore silently only to see Misaski literally jump off the safety of her ship and down into the RHIB.

"Oh shit…" Ivory swore again as she saw her bad luck act up again, seconds later, Misaski's feet made contact with her face.

 **End of chapter ii.**


End file.
